Trust in a Taxi Driver

September 15th 2009 10:00am
I did not have to go into work yesterday because I worked on Saturday, and I don't have work today because it is the Honduran Independence Day today. Days off are always nice.

Yesterday I slept in until about 10:00, then I made myself some breakfast and went back to bed to watch a movie on TV. When I had woken up enough, I went up to the roof to ride the stationary bike for a little bit. I saw an old woman up there washing her clothes, and I took mental notes on how to improve my clothes washing skills. She was a pro, and I there were very clearly flaws in my style.

I came back down, got showered and dressed and headed up to Plaza Miraflores, where I was looking for some thumb tacks or something to hang up some stuff around the apartment. With a little luck, I found some, and headed back home. I checked the weather report, and due to expected thunderstorms throughout this week, I decided to go ahead and wash my clothes. It didn't take very long, and when I was done, I made myself lunch and headed out to see more of the city.

When I got to Plaza Miraflores looking for a taxi, the first available driver happened to be my driver from last time, Gustavo. I told him that I wanted to go to a few places around the city, and I could see his eyes light up with dollar signs...or lempira signs I guess.

First, we went to the Casa Presidencial, or the Honduran White House. The army was very present, and I did not feel very comfortable standing around looking at it, so I just snapped a couple of quick pictures and got back into the cab.

Next, we went to Parque Espana. I had asked Freddy and Yasmine earlier if there were any parks in the city, and they both said no. I was confused later, when I found several different parks mentioned in the tour guide book that Patty gave me. I saw some good online reviews for the Parque Espana too, so I decided to go. Freddy and Yasmine were right. It wasn't much of a park. There was a large statue of the King of Spain, dating to the time when the park was donated by Spain. There were a few benches, and a halfway decent view of a quarter of the city. The whole park was no larger than one of our side yards.

After a very brief time spent there, I got back in the cab, and asked Gustavo if we could go downtown. A lot of the things in the tour book were located downtown, including a couple of museums, and the Francisco Morazan Plaza, which they call their Central Park, but is more like Fountain Square.

On our way downtown, Gustavo continued our previous conversation.

"Did you listen to what I said last time? Do you have a hot Honduran girl at your office that is all about you?"

"No, I uh..."

"Is it that they are all older than you? You don't like the older girls? You like the younger ones? You gotta be careful if you like the younger ones."

"Oh my gosh..."

"Or maybe you do like the older ones, but they don't like you. Maybe you are too tall for them heh? I bet you could get that girl (pointing) she is hot!"

"Gustavo, we are stopped at a light, with the windows down"

Gustavo dropped me off at the Plaza, and told me that he would be parked right on the side of the Plaza when I was done. I exited the taxi, and realized that Gustavo was making it very clear as to where he would be when I got back. I hadn't paid him anything yet, and he was really trusting me that I wouldn't just grab a different cab back and enjoy the perks of a free ride from him. I was very surprised, because last week I had been paying at every stop. I was glad he trusted me though.

I walked around the Plaza for a while, and took some pictures of a beautiful church that was down there. I got quite a few looks and glances from people as I wandered around some of the streets downtown. There was a strange mixture of modern stores and roadside shops. It was a strange mixture of an outdoor strip mall and Chinatown.

I went into one of the local stores, which sold a lot of wooden trinkets, local clothes, and Honduran flags. I had been wanting a big flag for a little while, and I asked them how much their biggest flag cost. It only cost 350 lempira, or 15 dollars, so I went ahead and bought it.

After buying the flag, I wandered around the downtown area a little bit more until I saw an old church on one of the side streets. I wandered down to it, and there was a huge open plaza with a whole section for street vendors selling everything from luggage, to flowers, to rice. I spent the next 20 minutes or so exploring the area, before heading back to the cab.

When I got back to the cab, Gustavo had an armed policeman on either side of him, holding his arms. There were roughly 8 other officers also crowded around him. The dollar signs in his eyes had turned into fear, and then a hopeful look when he saw me approaching. "There he is!" Gustavo yelled.

I did not know what to do. According to Professor John Hull's "Freeze, Flight, Fight" responses, I never got out of the frozen stage. Within no time, I was surrounded by the police. They brought Gustavo up to me, and he looked at me with eyes pleading for help. There was a head officer who was holding Gustavo's license and papers.

"Is it true that you came here with this man?" The head officer asked me.

"Yes." There was a knot in my stomach.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm new to the area and just wanted to take a look around downtown. Maybe take some pictures." With every answer I gave, I became more and more nervous, and the knot grew.

"What is in your bag?"

"Its a big Honduran flag." I reached in to bring it out to show them.

"That's fine. You don't have to show us. It turns out that your driver doesn't have the proper permit to park here."

I finally exhaled, and thought to myself, "That was it? A lack of a proper permit?"

The officer handed Gustavo back his license, the other two officers let him go, and Gustavo only charged me 100 lempiras for the whole round trip, which would have cost more like 400 lempiras.

When I got back to my apartment, I spent the rest of my afternoon taking my clothes down, pinning up my new flag and other decorations around the apartment. I also read some more of The Old Man and the Sea and practiced some of my Spanish vocabulary.

Around 5:30, I began making some chicken noodle soup for myself. It took a little bit longer than I thought it would, but it was fun and pretty easy to make. When I make it again, I will put in less noodles and less seasonings. I felt like there was too much going on. When I began out on the balcony, I heard a loud BOOM and looked up just in time to see the last few flashes of a firework. I spent the rest of my meal enjoying the show.

As soon as I finished eating, my phone in my apartment rang, and it was Freddy, wanting to know if I wanted to come over and watch a movie at his apartment. He was downstairs waiting to pick me up, and so I ran down and met him. Sadat was there, and one of Freddy's other friends who was at the second futbol game we watched.

The four of us headed over to Freddy's and watched Adventureland. I had seen it before with Ryan in Indianapolis, but it is a pretty good movie, so I didn't mind seeing it again. It is not the hilarious movie that they advertised, but I like it. Slowly, three other guys filtered in, and I forget all of their names. I didn't catch everything that they were saying, but it was very clearly a guy night away from the girlfriends. When the movie ended, I was ready to head on home and go to bed, but the rest of the people at the party were not. They had rented another movie, so we watched it too. And then about an hour and a half of the Simpsons and it was roughly 2:00 before I got back home.

Happy Independence Day Honduras.